A video is going viral on social media with the claim that it shows Indian men, including two Hindu priests, brutally gang-raped a woman from Uttarakhand for 10 days and then tied her body to a heavy rock and dumped it in the Ganges River to hide it forever.
Let’s check the truth.
Fact check:
We started our investigation with a reverse image search on Google, and the results led us to a tweet along with this viral video shared by ANI News in February 2025. The caption states, “Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of Ayodhya Ram temple, who passed away yesterday, given ‘Jal Samadhi’ in Saryu River in UP’s Ayodhya”.
This indicates that the viral video is old and not unrelated.
Using these hints, we conducted further searches and found a similar video shared by Times Now on their Facebook page on 13 February 2025. According to the same, “Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir, passed away at the age of 85 due to a brain stroke. He was laid to rest with “Jal Samadhi” in the Saryu River in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.
As per reports, the late chief priest of the Ram Janmabhoomi temple in Ayodhya, Mahant Satyendra Das, who passed away on 12 February 2025, was given Jal samadhi at Tulsidas Ghat in accordance with the traditions of the Ramanandi sect.
Based on this evidence, we can understand that the viral video does not show the body of a rape victim being dumped into the Ganges River. The video actually shows the Jal Samadhi (water burial) of Acharya Satyendra Das, the late chief priest of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir, in the Saryu River in February 2025.
Ayodhya Ram Mandir’s chief priest, Acharya Satyendra Das, is given Jal samadhi in the Saryu River following his death in February 2025.
Conclusion
Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the video to be Misleading. This video shows the Jal Samadhi of Acharya Satyendra Das, the former chief priest of Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir, taking place in the Saryu River in February 2025.
Title: Old video of Ayodhya Ram Mandir chief priest’s Jal samadhi falsely shared as body of rape victim dumped in Ganges
Fact Check By: Usha Manoj
Result: Misleading
